Juliet Immortal by Stacey Jay Published by Ember ISBN: 9780385740173
on September 11th 2012
Genres: Young Adult, Love & Romance, Fantasy & Magic, Paranormal
Pages: 307
Read it as: eBook
Source: Purchased
My rating:
Check it out in Goodreads
Synopsis
Fans of Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver and Becca Fitzpatrick's Hush will relish this intense paranormal love story featuring Romeo and Juliet, literary history's most tragic couple, who meet again, not as true lovers, but truly as enemies. The most tragic love story in history . . .
Juliet Capulet didn't take her own life. She was murdered by the person she trusted most, her new husband, Romeo Montague, a sacrifice made to ensure his own immortality. But what Romeo didn't anticipate was that Juliet would be granted eternity, as well, and would become an agent for the Ambassadors of Light. For 700 years, she's fought Romeo for the souls of true lovers, struggling to preserve romantic love and the lives of the innocent. Until the day she meets someone she's forbidden to love, and Romeo, oh Romeo, will do everything in his power to destroy that love.
"These violent delights have violent ends And in their triumph die, like fire and powder, Which as they kiss consume." --Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
From the Hardcover edition.
Juliet Immortal was a great take on the story. At first I was hesitant to read this because I had really high expectations after having read Of Beast and Beauty, and Princess of Thorns; and well, it wasn’t better than them, but it held its ground firmly.
Good Beginnings are Keepers
It’s rare to find beginnings that hook you right in. And I was really happy to find this in this book. No unnecessary filler. The book began where it had to, where it was supposed to.
The Romance
The Romance occupies a great chunk of the story. C’mon, it’s Romeo and Juliet, what did you expect? But, you know… it actually wasn’t that satisfactory, because it was a bit confusing. Juliet as Ariel is drawn and falling in love with Ben Luna in less than it should be normal, and it just didn’t sit very well with me. View Spoiler »
Other Relationships
The dynamics between Juliet as Ariel and Ariel’s ‘best friend’ are… interesting.
Gemma is a bitch. A very sorry excuse of a friend, and her friendship with Ariel had been really unhealthy, and I was glad that it was pointed out. That it wasn’t approved of. Because it’s something so common place. There’s always that friend, the one who is louder, more sociable, more daring, and you look up to him/her, and in spite of always feeling less, you don’t say a thing because what the heck would you do without him/her?
Ariel has serious mommy issues that gave me more or less the same frustration her friendship with Gemma did. And… it started to annoy me because… I get people mess up sometimes. We’re not perfect. But the fact that Gemma and Ariel’s mother could be so blatantly and downright mean so often, and then go back to being normal was unsettling.
In conclusion, I liked Juliet Immortal, but only superficially so, since if I dissected every detail of Juliet, the plot, or -god help me- the romance, it’d be receiving much less than three starts.
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Romeo Redeemed by Stacey Jay Published by Delacorte Press on 2012
Genres: Young Adult, Love & Romance, Fantasy & Magic, Paranormal
Pages: 365
My rating:
Check it out in Goodreads
Synopsis
All will be revealed for fans who have breathlessly awaited the sizzling sequel to Juliet Immortal. This time Romeo takes center stage and gets one chance, and one chance only, to redeem himself.
Cursed to live out eternity in his rotted corpse, Romeo, known for his ruthless, cutthroat ways, is given the chance to redeem himself by traveling back in time to save the life of Ariel Dragland. Unbeknownst to her, Ariel is important to both the evil Mercenaries and the love-promoting Ambassadors and holds the fate of the world in her hands. Romeo must win her heart and make her believe in love, turning her away from her darker potential before his work is discovered by the Mercenaries. While his seduction begins as yet another lie, it soon becomes his only truth. Romeo vows to protect Ariel from harm, and do whatever it takes to win her heart and soul. But when Ariel is led to believe his love is a deception, she becomes vulnerable to Mercenary manipulation, and her own inner darkness may ultimately rip them apart.
I liked this book so much better than Juliet Immortal!
I don’t know, I just enjoyed Romeo’s narration a lot more. Maybe because Juliet was supposed to be good, and she… well, she stayed good. But Romeo was an jerk through and through and IT WAS AWESOME.
Let me list some of the reasons this worked really good:
- Dual (Triple?) POV.
- Great character development.
- Action-packed scenes.
- High stakes -Really though, what’s better to motivate someone to not to screw something up than to have the alternative be live forever trapped in a rotten corpse?
- Emotional and amazing ending.
Now, some of the reasons that prevented it from getting five stars:
- Confusing time-space traveling mojos.
- Even weirder characterization for Gemma and Ariel’s mom than in the first book.
- Ariel going all Carrie on Romeo, and Gemma too. (she doesn’t have any supernatural powers but that’s countered by her unnerving bout of darkness) -> This would’ve been awesome if it hadn’t been such an out of nowhere thing.
In conclusion, a book where I couldn’t stop turning pages, and very well-paced that’s a must read after taking Juliet Immortal for a spin!
It seems like the sequel was better than the first book! I am glad the first one was able to draw you in enough to keep you reading though. I am a fan of Romeo and Juliet retellings although I have a love/hate relationship with the original play. This sounds interesting but I am not sure if I am going to try it out yet or not. I will have to think about it…
Olivia Roach recently posted this awesome thing…A Madness So Discreet (Review)